Chapter 420

Chapter 420: Final Right of Interpretation

"Even if you don’t know, you might have already guessed," said the psychologist, who was somewhat well-known in the inner city, with a smile. "We are the ‘Believers.’"

As expected. Upon hearing this, Shi Jin felt a mix of shock and relief. She had always sensed that her experiences were rather peculiar and had even been captured once as a member of the "Believers." Fulan had also hinted and even stated multiple times that there was an organization above hers; the Holy Fire Meow Meow Cult was merely her personal force.

Now, she had finally reached the threshold of this mysterious organization, and she even found a seat inside, only to discover that the names she recognized were not unfamiliar faces at all. Looking back on her past memories, Shi Jin found them a bit abstract. From her perspective now, it seemed Luke hadn’t made a mistake in his capture; it was more of a case of having foresight into the future and apprehending her early.

Next, Lin Qingliu briefly introduced the organization’s purpose and the new doctrine he had stayed up to revise. Although it sounded somewhat serious, he tailored the explanation for each person differently. If one had to categorize it, Wang Xiao belonged to the quantum Buddhist sect, while El represented the cyber-Greek gods…

To bridge this gap and make up for the previous holes in the thought process, Lin Qingliu intentionally downplayed the existence of a deity in the new draft of the doctrine, placing it merely in the background while directing the organization’s goals towards the continuation of human existence. This was the benefit of having the final right of interpretation; in this parallel future world, Lin Qingliu naturally held "editing rights" over many aspects of his homeland.

After a torrent of quantum preaching came to an end, the faux pastor tossed the floor back to Arthur. When everyone turned to Arthur once more, they discovered that the golden giant had vanished without a trace, replaced by a lanky figure with long limbs and a head of white hair sitting in a chair. Those who had seen the "Paster" immediately understood, while the others learned of the Speaker’s other identity.

After demonstrating his abilities, the golden giant returned to the conference room. "Regarding future matters, we need to divide tasks here today to ensure that everyone’s actions won’t conflict with each other and can smoothly coordinate," he said.

He first looked at "Infinite Scroll," signaling the oldest member present to speak first. Having shed the disguise of a human, "Infinite Scroll" had uploaded her main consciousness back to the long-abandoned spaceship main unit over the past two days and had upgraded her body. Without all the artificial intelligence, the spaceship main unit was simply a machine that could only follow commands. Now, this precise instrument had been thoroughly mastered by "Infinite Scroll" and the "Believers."

At that moment, although she hadn’t re-installed the four mechanical arms, she appeared much younger, resembling a woman in her early thirties. Her eyes seemed to have shed some kind of disguise, emitting faint sounds of focus and little glimmers of light as she scanned the crowd.

"After the meeting ends, I will distribute portable terminals to everyone; communication can be freely conducted within the range of Hope City and its outskirts. My main consciousness has been uploaded to the spaceship main unit and can assist everyone at any time," she said.

Ji Yongxing raised his hand and said, "My primary task right now is to supervise the development of individual armored suits, and I’m also researching the composition of this planet…" He looked at everyone and suddenly laughed, "Generally speaking, my tasks won’t interfere with yours, as long as you inform me in advance about any actions related to the research institute."

"Meow? Composition of the planet?" Fulan suddenly joined the discussion, and everyone glanced at the colorful cat resting its upper body on the table. "Fulan just returned from outside the city, and the team suffered significant losses… no, that’s not the point," the cat shook its head and said. "We discovered something incredible outside the city; just south of the southern swamp, there is a bottomless abyss and lots of strange black mud. I brought some back."

The young researcher immediately seized the opportunity for attention, while Fulan indicated she would hand over that portion of findings after the meeting. Everyone shared what they were currently working on, more like awkward self-introductions among new classmates than formal reports to the "Missionary" Lin Qingliu and the "Paster" Arthur.

For instance, Shi Jin felt too embarrassed to mention that she had just lost a job, especially since her boss was now caught and forced to operate a sewing machine, so she subtly expressed her willingness to adapt and cooperate with everyone’s actions.

In the end, Arthur reassigned everyone’s current tasks and roles. As the current symbol of Hope City, Arthur naturally remained within the city under non-special circumstances, and on his right arm, he wore the integrated device components operated by the four former first team members. "Holy Shield," "Fortress," "Disaster Core," and "Starfall" had successfully completed their separation surgeries with the help of the research institute and fully entered retirement.

The spaceship artificial intelligence, from its design, could only exert complete control over one operating device, so "Infinite Scroll" naturally maintained her access to the database. However, someone had to fill the vacant positions from the first team; to prevent a tragedy from repeating, Arthur took over those four devices. The combined immense mental pressure of four overlapping forces could destroy the sanity of a normal person in seconds; even a physical monster like Wang Xiao would likely struggle to withstand it.

Yet Arthur was still able to act and think normally under such intense pressure. Faced with this completely inexplicable situation, the researchers could only throw up their hands in admiration of the Speaker. "Infinite Scroll" generally wouldn’t leave the spire; even when she did, she would upload her main consciousness to the spire’s main unit first to maintain connections with other "Believers."

Excluding these two special members, the other members were also arranged accordingly. El and Zhuang Mian remained in their light and dark roles, only this time their responsibilities expanded from the inner city to the outer city. The aftershocks of the New Year’s speech were still ongoing, and Arthur needed some eyes hidden in the dark to gather intelligence for him. Yan Ming was in charge of getting the reworked factory back on track; the new regulations for workers had already been freshly drafted and just needed some minor revisions to be ready for the initial rollout.